Japan Real Wages: Updated September 9, 2024.

 

Japan's real wages rise 0.4% in July, up for 2nd month on bonuses

Article Source:   https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240905/p2g/00m/0bu/017000c

Ideas:
Real wages are important as nominal wages include inflation, but at 0.4 percent that's not much of an increase.

If 1,000 Japanese were surveyed, they might say their wages haven't grown that much even though some might have gotten a wage increase.

It must be remembered, that maybe 70 percent of Japanese workers don't work for the large name-brand companies but small and midsize companies, and most likely, they didn't get the 5+ percent increase that large company workers got in April.

But something it better than nothing for wage increases, but at the same time, does the wage increase cover the inflation that continues in Japan.

Bonuses are traditionally a part of Japanese company culture, and most Japanese workers can probably expect some kind of bonus in the summer and and in December.

Of course not all companies pay the same bonus as of course the large companies pay the most while small and midsize companies of course pay much less.

Overtime might be down, as the Japanese government is trying to get companies to limit overtime as a way to improve the work life balance of Japanese workers.

Most likely, in years past, companies didn't give a lot of bonuses as the Japanese economy just wasn't that strong and was/is stagnant, and so companies seeing the economic environment as not that good decide not to give bonuses or they reduced the amount of bonuses in previous years.

Yes, as wage increases take affect they might begin to level off as the summer wears on with high summer temperatures, and the typhoon season having an affect on the Japanese economy.

Even though it was the so-called Bon season, or summer holiday season in Japan, there might not be that much activity due, again, the high summer heat and the typhoon season having some kind of affect on the Japanese economy.

Again, it must be remembered that not all Japanese workers work for the large name-brand companies, as it been reported that up to 70 percent of Japanese workers work for small and midsize companies, which means they might not have gotten the 5+ percent wage increase that the large company workers got.

And then there are the contract workers and part-time workers, which make up a significant number of workers in Japan, as like globally, more and more economies are using contract and part-time workers only to reduce costs, and they didn't get the same wage increase.

Not all workers in Japan get the 529,266 nominal wages, as many Japanese worker don't even get near that amount. 

That might be a reason why only 6% of Japanese workers are engaged or enthusiastic about their work in Japan, as they are either unhappy or just going though the motions at their company.

But its a global situation, and has been for sometime as workers globally, are just tired of their work and want to change but can't see or find something they really want to do, so they just go through the motions at their workplace and hope for 5 or 6 to come quickly so they can go home.

Have a nice day!